East Bergholt Parish Council
Burial Grounds Committee Meeting
Thursday 23rd January 2025

Attendance
– Cllr. M Hurley (Chair)
– Cllr. J Miller
– Cllr N Roberts
– Cllr R Allen

Meeting opened at 7pm.

Open Public Session: no members of the public present.

1. Welcome And Apologies for Absence: Chair opened the official meeting,
committee noted the absence of Cllr. R Wombwell.

2. Decelerations of Interest: none received or made

3. Minuets: Committee considered the minuets of July 18th 2024, proposed to
accept by Cllr. M Hurley seconded by Cllr. N Roberts, vote taken 3 in favour 1
abstention (Cllr. R Allen not present at that meeting) unanimous.

4. Matters arising: no main matters arising from the minutes, although Cllr. M
Hurley informed the committee that there was a follow up in regards to the
digitisation project however that will be taken during item 6. Of the agenda.

5. Vacancy: council considered the vacancy created to advertise the position of
grounds person for the cemetery and churchyard, it was noted by councillors
that there was some confusion with the vacancy, regarding it’s layout and
wording. Cllr N Roberts addressed that there is information in the vacancy
that is not necessary for a job vacancy and that there needed to be clarity of
what were the “summer” and “winter” seasons as this was unclear. Cllr R
Allen asked if the committee were looking for a contractor or an employee this
ideally needed to act as two different descriptions. It was decided by
committee chair to take the actions addressed in two stages, the first vote.

“To decide whether to employ a contractor or employee” – proposed by Cllr. R
Allen seconded by Cllr. M Hurley, 4 in favour none against or abstentions,
vote passed unanimously.

It was also discussed amongst the committee that ideally a new job
description and vacancy should be written up, Cllr. N Roberts raised the point
that this advertisement should be circulated on noticeboards and social
media, which the committee agreed in principle should be the case. It was
discussed the structure of a new job description covering the key points…

– Introduction
– Main duties
– Terms of employment

The following vote was taken.

“To request the creation of a new job description matching the proposed
structure and to advertise as soon as possible on other council outlets, Notice
Boards, Website and Social media” Proposed by Cllr. M Hurley seconded by
Cllr. R Allen, 4 votes in favour none against or abstentions (unanimously)

Cllr. M Hurley agreed to create a very basic structure with wording and
examples of what the committee feel the description should look like.

6. Digitisation: committee considered the report by the assistant clerk and also
information fed to the committee from Cllr. M Hurley after speaking with the
Parish Clerk that morning, it’s been outlined that the system to access the
entire cemetery plan with reserved, taken and free burial sites is available
however the ease and accessibility of this for the clerks is still not present, it
has been brought to the attention of the committee that Pear Technology say
this point is “still in development” meanwhile the clerks are using a hybrid
system, it was agreed by the committee that Cllr. M Hurley meet with both
Parish Clerk and Assistant Clerk early in the following week to work out
exactly what we are still waiting for from Pear Technology, how the clerks are
currently working with the new system, what correspondence needs to be
sent to Pear (if any) to address these issues and to confirm when a end of
project report will be ready for viewing. Cllr. M Hurley to correspond with
Clerks and arrange this.

7. Risk assessment: committee considered the risk assessments provided by
the clerks it was noted by the committee that one of the risk assessments in
comparison to the other had not been completely finished, it was agreed by
the committee to be actioned my Cllr. M Hurley to address this with the clerks
when he meets with them next week.

8. Urgent communication: item 8 added that morning by Cllr. M Hurley to inform
the committee that the Clerk has reported Row 2 of the cemetery is nearly full
due to reservations and burials and that as the committee have already

agreed that the cemetery will be extended and Row three created, Row three
will likely begin to be used soon. Cllr. J Miller reminded the committee that
there are also still spaces available nearer the older end of the cemetery
which we will encourage to offer alongside row 3.

Meeting closed at 7:41pm